[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with the executive director of Gateway U, Saymah Nah.

And Saymah, thank you so much for joining us.

- Steve.

(laughs) - Listen, we've been taping all day, and it's like 2:30 in the afternoon, and this is the energy you bring.

You're making my job easier.

Tell everyone what Gateway U is and why it matters.

The website will be put up right away.

- Yeah, for sure, so in a nutshell, right?

Gateway U is a degree pathway program.

We partner with Southern New Hampshire University to provide our community degrees, and that's just, you know, simply put.

But I think the idea of Gateway U and our why is a much more complex picture, Steve.

- Hmm, born and raised where?

- Born and raised in the city of Newark.

I'm from the Spires, the Garden Spires on First Street near (indistinct).

(Saymah laughs) - I know it well.

- Yeah, Steve, I know you're a Newark native as well, so it's nice to be on a call with a fellow Newark native.

- Hey, hold on, before we talk more about Gateway U, isn't there something about those of us from Newark that's special that makes everybody else envious?

Just to confirm, just between us?

- Oh, yeah, for sure, I mean, we're the best in the land.

I mean, I wouldn't wanna be from any other place.

Like what is California, what is San Diego, what is New York City, what is the Bronx?

You gotta- - They're jealous.

They're jealous, but now help us understand.

I'll stop goofing, all right.

My producer's like, "Stop goofing off."

Okay, we'll get back to Gateway U. Connect Gateway U to the city of Newark and the young people of Newark, please.

- Sure, for sure, you know, when I think about Gateway U, I think for me, you know, as a child and as a college student, I believed if you worked hard enough, you would be granted the opportunity to go to college and get into your career of your dreams.

And I think that has been the furthest from the truth, especially from the neighborhood that I'm from, right?

And as I started to grow, Steve, as an adult, and my mind started to develop, and my thoughts started to become my own, right?

My thoughts and my feelings started to become my own, and I was no longer regurgitating information.

(laughs) I started looking around and realizing that how many people around me were not afforded the same thing, regardless of how hard they worked, right?

And that always kind of stuck with me, again especially for the neighborhood that I'm from, right?

When it comes to the conversation around tokenism and what that means, right?

I realized that even if you worked hard, sometimes you just didn't have enough, right?

It still wasn't enough, and you know, college is supposed to be a gateway for opportunities, but you know, college can also be a very hefty, expensive, unaffordable bill, right?

And if we connect that to opportunities, and we say college is supposed to be about opportunities, but it's a hefty bill, that means opportunities cost, right?

- That's right.

- Yeah, and sometimes, you know, the price, also understand, right?

That the price isn't always about money.

Sometimes the price is about privilege, right?

The privilege of having the time to commit to your studies, the privilege of having the ability to sit in a physical classroom, right?

And sometimes the cost is the knowledge, the knowledge and the wherewithal or the understanding to fill out your financial aid documents, right?

Sometimes we don't have that, we don't have that privilege, and we don't have that knowledge.

And you know, sometimes it's dollars, right?

Sometimes it actually is money, and I guess like the point that I'm trying to make, the point that I'm trying to drive here is that whatever the cost, you know, opportunities cost something for our community.

It costs something for the Black and brown kids of Newark, right?

- But I'm sorry for interrupting, but I wanna bring this back to Gateway U, and also the teacher shortage in the state, because there's a shortage, you're trying to address it, opportunity, expense, challenges.

What exactly is Gateway U doing in the city of Newark, also doing across the country and other places to address the teacher shortage?

- Yeah, for sure, so we launched our teacher pathway program, and our teacher pathway program has two entry points.

The first entry point is for teachers who need to be certified, so these are aspiring teachers who need to be certified, so we help them throughout the practice to be able to gain support.

The second piece, right?

The second entry point is the people who need their degree, right?

So there are people that have been in schools for years, your paras, your teacher assistant that have been in front of our kids and teaching our kids for years, right?

And haven't been able to move to the next step because there isn't a flexible option for them to be able to finish their degree in order to take the practice to become a certified teacher.

So we help those two groups of people be able to move into the certified space.

- Why do you care so much about this?

(Saymah laughs) Not just professionally, but personally?

- Yeah, I think that's a great question.

You know, this is my city, and I've been deeply connected, deeply rooted since the time that I can remember, right?

I consider myself to be a very avid community servant to the city of Newark from Big Brother Big Sister, Junior NAACP, New Community, the list goes on, and I've seen- - You were tied to New Community Corporation Reverend Linda back in the day?

You're too young for, did you know who I'm talking about, Reverend Linda?

- Yes.

- Really?

- I went to St. Rose of Lima on Orange Street.

- Oh (Steve applauding) (Saymah laughs) That's beautiful.

So I'm sorry I interrupted you.

- Oh, you're fine.

- So bring it back, and bring it back also, if you could, Saymah, to the lack of representation in the classroom for students who are disproportionately Hispanic and Black, Black and brown students who do not see enough teachers who look like them.

- Yeah, for sure, you know, I think when we talk about representation in education, it's very important to go back to, you know, back to Brown versus the Board of Ed, right?

- 1954 Brown versus Board of Education, Topeka.

- Yeah, for sure, and I'm pretty sure we're probably all familiar with the intention of Brown versus Board of Ed, right?

That the idea, right?

Was to get rid of separate but equal, but simply separate was not equal, right?

We understood that, we were able to know that.

- Separate is not equal.

- Right, and when we did that, you know, Black teachers and Black principals actually lost their job.

That was the turning point, right?

That was the turning point that we saw, and before Brown versus the Board of Ed, for those who don't know, the math was pretty simple.

White teachers taught white children in white schools, and Black teachers taught Black children in Black schools.

But after the Board of Ed, you know, integration cost Black teachers their jobs.

They started to close Black schools, and they started to bus Black children, right?

Into these schools, but they didn't take the teachers with them, right?

They didn't take the teachers with them, and these teachers lost their jobs, so that was the turning point.

So I think when we talk about representation, we gotta talk a little bit about, you know, how did we actually get here, right?

And how did we get to this point?

And, you know, W.E.B.

Du Bois also said, it's my favorite, you know, of all time, that a slum is not a simple fact, right?

It's a symptom, and the lack of Black teachers that we're experiencing right now is a symptom that we've been experiencing for decades.

So when we think about, you know, what's happening in this space right now, we gotta go a little bit back to figure out how we got here to be able to explain where we are.

And the idea is to empower, and I usually hate the word empower, 'cause it means give people power, and people already have the power to do these things, but right?

These powers, these ATs, people have been in the schools for years that tend to be people of color and tend to be people from the community that I- - But they don't have the degree, they don't have their credentials.

- Exactly, right?

- Saymah, I hate doing this, but the one thing I do not have power over is time.

Can you come back and pick up this conversation in greater depth?

And I apologize for cutting you off like that.

- No, for sure, I'm sorry that my questions might be long-winded.

- No, no, that's what passion will do.

(Saymah laughs) I cannot thank you enough from one Newarker to another, and one who's definitely putting in the work and making a difference at Gateway U.

Thank you so much, we'll have you back soon.

- All right, Steve, thank you.

- You got it, take care.

Be right back after this.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The Fidelco Group.

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And by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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And by BestofNJ.com.

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